The Battle of the Highest (Dramione)

Chapter 3: The Announcement

*HERMIONE*

I wake up, straining my eyes to be able to see in the dark room. I look to my alarm clock, which reads 6:00am. I groan. Classes didn't start until 9:00, and breakfast was at 6:30. I urge myself to slide out of bed, and I pull on an oversized sweatshirt that barely went past my ass, and considering I only had underwear on underneath, I had to be careful.

I walk over to the door leading to the bathroom and pull it open so I could wash my face, only to find Malfoy zipping his pants. I yelp, turning my back quickly, feeling the heat rush to my cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," I say quickly.

"No, it's my fault. I should've locked the doors or something," Malfoy says back. After several seconds he says, "You're safe now." Malfoy saying that comforted me, even though he meant by his jeans being secure, and I feel his hands grab my waist, sliding my sweatshirt up ever so slightly so that he could place both his hands on my skin. They weren't cold like a thought they would be, but they were a comforting heat, but contact with his skin sent shivers down my body; the good kind of shivers. I sigh quietly, hoping he wouldn't hear me.

Malfoy guides me into his room, decorated with emerald green and silver.

"Look, I'm sorry about last night," he says. "I didn't mean to-"

"I know, Draco. Just forget it." I feel his grip tighten slightly on my hips.

"Did you just call me Draco, Granger?" he says with a surprised tone. I hadn't realized I had.

"I didn't realize it," I say slowly.

"Well... Hermione, I guess we don't have to address each other by our last names, now do we?"

"Guess not." Draco spins me around so I face him, and last night runs through my mind again. This time, Draco holds me to him, placing his hands on my lower back right near my waist, pressing me into him. I look in his eyes, the eyes I once thought were dark and dangerous, now replaced with shimmering and mysterious eyes. And he leans into me, pressing his lips against mine, and I place my hands against his bare chest. We stay in sync for a few seconds and then he breaks away, and to be truthful I was sort of disappointed. Draco steps away from me.

"I shouldn't have done that," he says quietly. "Now you're going to hate me."

"Why would you think that?" I ask. He turns to me.

"Wait, what?"

"I asked 'Why would you think that?'. I asked that when you said that I'm going to hate you."

"Do you?" he asks.

I don't answer him right away. I mean I wasn't expecting him to take me to his bedroom and kiss me at six in the morning, but I wouldn't say it was bad.

I shrug. "I don't know," I admit. "I wasn't expecting you to do that, and it really took me by surprise." I see a look of shock mixed with dread pass through his face. I swallow.

"Um... I'm going to get dressed..." I say quickly, shuffling away back through the bathroom and back into my room, locking the door behind me. I dress into my robes and twist my hair up into a messy bun and walk into the common room.

"You off to breakfast?" Draco asks. I nod. "Me too," he says.

"All right. What to walk with me?" I ask hopefully.

He smirks. "Granger, we aren't an item," he says smugly. My disappointment takes over and I suddenly feel upset again.

"Right..." I push past him to get to the door. "See you later."

I push open the door and walk up the stairs, walking down corridors to get to the Great Hall. I sit down at the Gryffindor table away from Ron, Harry, and Ginny, who look at me with worry, but they don't bother to come over and talk to me.

How could I be so stupid? Dra- Malfoy, was probably just trying to open me up, watch me fall head over heels for him. He probably is pretending. He probably didn't feel anything from that kiss. I sure felt something. When our lips met I felt sparks fly and I felt happy. But Malfoy, he just thinks of me as the same mudblood.

Ginny plops down across from me.

"Why a long face?" she asks. I shake my head.

"It's nothing."

"Lonely without us?" she teases. I roll my eyes.

"I'm not lonely. Just kind of... upset."

"About?" Ginny asks.

"Ginny, it's nothing, really." I see her gaze across the room behind me, but I don't turn to see what she's looking at.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Someone's staring at you," she says, pointing at whoever she was looking at. I turn and see Malfoy staring at is from across the room. He smirks at us. I glare, and a lop-sided grin appears across his pale face.

"What's going on?" Ginny asks slowly.

"I got prefect this year for Gryffindor, Malfoy got Slytherin prefect, and I'm not sure who got Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff prefect," I explain. "And the other prefects haven't been around much, so it's practically just me and Malfoy."

"Are you guys....?!"

"Ginny! Oh my goodness, no. We're not together, and if anything we're farther apart," I say, half true and half a lie.

She giggles. "Just asking. I think it might be kind of cute, but I still wouldn't be able to see you with him, you know what I mean?"

I shake my head and smile at the same time. "We're not together."

I finish up breakfast and take my bag and walk down to Potions.



After a day of what, six lessons, I go back quickly to the prefect house to put my books away. As quickly as I can I walk back to the Great Hall for dinner. We eat, our plates filling with anything we desired to consume, and stuffed ourselves until it hurt. I hear a clank and draw my attention to Professor McGonagall.

"Attention please!" she says, her strong yet calm voice washing over the room.

"This year at Hogwarts will be different," she says. "The Ministry has sent agents to help us out for this year with our special event." The students murmur to the others sitting beside them, mostly the first through third years. Being in the Battle of Hogwarts, I'm practically ready for anything.

"This year, we will be having a tournament. And to those students who were here a few years ago, it is not the Triwizard Tournament. Instead we are having another type of intense tournament, called The Battle of the Highest. The Ministry of Magic has decided that it will take place every three years, this year being the first. You could say that The Battle of the Highest is a take-off of the Triwizard Tournament, but no. This tournament has been created to be more challenging and extremely dangerous. This is meant to be an in-school event, meant to raise team spirit you might say.

"The rules are simple: there will be three challenges, all kept a secret until the day of when the challenge begins. We will have four students from this school, one from each house. And quit the chatter, because we've already picked the competitors. And let me tell you, students who are going to compete. This tests your wits and magic. The Ministry has preformed it to those local wizards willing to get hurt, and let me tell you, prepare yourself for what draws near. They said the winner was left in a horrible state, traumatized and it was painful for them to speak of it."

The professor glances over each table carefully, never blinking.

"From Hufflepuff," she exclaims, "Zacharias Smith." I remember from a couple years ago that Zacharias was in Dumbledore's Army. He stands and walks to the front, standing behind the professor.

"From Ravenclaw... Cho Chang." The girl stands up, looking a little nervous, and takes her spot beside Zacharias.

"From Slytherin... Draco Malfoy." I look across the room to see him stand, a not-so-genuine grin plastered to his face, as he struts up to the front and stands behind Cho.

"And from Gryffindor... Hermione Granger." I look at Ginny who, as well, has panic across her face, as well as empathy. I stand up slowly, my hands shaking, and walk up to the front and stand beside Malfoy, careful not to make eye-contact by staring straight ahead and trying to slow my breathing.

"I present to you your school prefects, and our competitors," McGonagall announces. The room erupts in applause that sounds too forced, and McGonagall congratulates each of us, then tells us to go back to the prefect house. Zacharias starts the line down the middle of the room, followed by Cho then Malfoy then me. I send Ginny, Ron, and Harry a look clearly saying "Please help me!" then I walk out of the room following the other prefects. We walk in silent the whole way.

We stumble into the common room, Zacharias in one of the armchairs and Cho in the other, and me and Malfoy on the couch.

"Well, we should've expected that," Malfoy says. Talk about an attitude...

"That should've been what you wanted," I shoot back, "considering that you're already arrogant and self-absorbed. You should be happily accepting the attention."

"I didn't even want to be a prefect anyway," Zacharias says.

"Me either," says Cho. "Last year I decided was my last year here but my father made me come this year too. Talk about this being the best school year ever," she says sarcastically.

I shrug. "We just have to prepare like Professor McGonagall said," I say calmly.

"Oh please, I'm sure it's going to be nothing," Malfoy retorts. "I don't need to 'prepare' because this is going to be a piece of cake."

"You think that now, Malfoy," Zacharias says. "Just wait..." Malfoy rolls his eyes.

"Wait, guys," Cho says. "I remember McGonagall said that there's only three tests, and four of us. And she mentioned only one person, the only person left, the winner."

I swallow. "Then what happens to the other three of us when one of us win?" I ask.

"Isn't it obvious, Granger? You of all people should know what'll happen," Malfoy shoots back. "The other three are killed in some way." I watch as Cho's face changes into horror and disgust.

"And there's no allies, I presume," Zacharias says quietly. I shake my head.

"We'll just figure this out tomorrow," I say. "Right now let's get some sleep."

We all stand up, Cho walking to her room extremely quickly and Zacharias a little slower than her to his room. I stand up too, walking over to my door. I see that Malfoy is still sitting down.

"You all right?" I ask.

"Fine, Granger," he says.

"If there's anything you possibly need, just come talk to me," I say reassuringly. He doesn't respond, so I slip into my room, get my night clothes on, and slip into bed, trying not to think about what's going to happen during The Battle of the Highest.